Plastics play a significant role in nearly all aspects of modern life. Consumers repeatedly come into contact with products containing plastic material, ranging from sophisticated medical devices and consumer electronics to more basic products, such as disposable razors. However, plastics also make up a significant percentage of the waste stream generated each year. As a result, much effort has been expended to reclaim and recycle post-consumer plastics, especially food and beverage containers, which represent a large amount of recyclable post-consumer plastic.
In general, food and beverage containers comprise a containing body manufactured from one type of plastic polymer and some form of lid or cap, which is frequently manufactured from a different type of plastic polymer. For example, the ubiquitous water bottle is often made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) while the bottle caps are often made from polypropylene (PP). When the two materials are mixed together during recycling, one type of material may contaminate the other. This reduces the value of the recycled material and/or requires resources to separate the materials before processing. In many instances, if a plastic container has a cap on it, the entire container is recycled as a unit because consumers are not advised or forget to remove the cap from the container. As such, many plastic-containing products, and food and beverage containers in particular, introduce significant inefficiencies into the post-consumer plastics recycling process.